This invention relates to ceramic greenware.
Conventional ceramic processing typically comprises ball milling a slurry, which contains a ceramic material and a solvent, to reduce the particle size of the ceramic material. The milled slurry is dried, such as by spray drying or pan drying, and the dried ceramic composition is then formed into greenware.
In the fabrication of ceramic articles, a temporary binder typically is employed. A good binder must satisfy several criteria. It should be soluble in the slurry containing the ceramic, and it should have a low solution viscosity thereby facilitating ball milling and permitting high solids content in the slurry. It should be compatible with other additives and processing steps. Since the binder is not a desirable component of a final ceramic article, it should be easily removable at some point in the processing sequence. In addition, the binder should impart green strength to the green fabricated article.
It would be desirable to have a binder having all of these properties. It would be especially desirable to have a binder which would impart improved strength to ceramic greenware as compared to greenware prepared using known binders.